Oyster Farming 101

Oyster farming doesn’t necessarily sound like the most fun hobby someone could have, but it’s a lot more interesting then you might think at first. On top of it being interesting, it’s also a sustainable way of producing food, which is what we’ll talk about as well.

The history of oyster farming

Oyster farming is, although you might have never heard about it, not something new. People have been farming oysters since the time of ancient Rome. The first century B.C was when we believe oyster farming started on the Italian peninsula. It didn’t last incredibly long though, as barbarian invasions got the better of the oyster farms. Oyster farming was then moved to Britain, from where the oysters were exported to Rome. This is how Rome still got its oysters.

It was 1852 when oyster farming was reinvented by Monsieur de Bon, he re-seed the oyster beds using oyster spawn that he gathered himself. Things got really serious when Hyacinthe Boeuf opened her oyster farm on an island of the French shore. On this small island, he built a wall onto which the baby oysters settled themselves. After the start of this oyster aquaculture, oyster farming was officially born and it really took off.

Many of the methods used by this very first oyster farm, and even by the roans, are still used today, simply because they work so well.

The benefits of oyster farming

Oyster farming and oyster aquaculture actually have a positive impact on its environment, which is unique when it comes to food production, so what exactly causes oyster farming to be such a positive endeavour.

The very first reason that oyster farming has a positive impact on the environment is that oysters purify the water. As a matter of fact, oysters can filter up to 55 litres of water each day, and that is per oyster. I believe that you can understand that one oyster farm has a big positive impact on the water it is in.

On top of this, they take up nitrogen and CO2 from the atmosphere. This means that they take one of the most damaging gasses, which is CO2, from our atmosphere. Having enough oyster farms could help reverse climate change by lowering the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Oysters also don’t really ask for much to grow, they live off plankton in the water. You don’t need to grow food on land, you don’t need to waste tons of water for a couple of oysters. They don’t need anything except for the water that they grow in.

Oysters are actually really healthy as well. They contain a lot of zinc, which is what oysters are famous for. But, this isn’t everything. They are also full of vitamin B12 and important fatty acids. These fatty acids have even been linked to mood, so eating enough oysters can help with depression and stress problems.

All in all, it’s very clear that setting up more oyster aquaculture in the form of oyster farming is a good idea that will benefit humanity in the future. Not only will the oysters purify the water and take up CO2 from the atmosphere, we can feed more humans with it and provide them with some much-needed vitamins and fatty acids. The history of oyster farming goes very far back, and it is sure to keep on growing from here. There are multiple ways to practice oyster farming, and in the future, we’ll only keep perfecting these ways to save the environment through the building of oyster farms.